Internet Explorer is going away, although probably not soon enough in the eyes of its many haters.

Microsoft has been talking for a few months about its work on a new web browser, codenamed Project Spartan, that will be packaged with the upcoming Windows 10.

So it’s no secret that Internet Explorer (IE), Microsoft’s browser since 1995, is entering its twilight.

Yet comments by Microsoft’s chief marketing officer Chris Capossela have been misinterpreted to suggest an imminent death for IE.

Capossela said at the Microsoft Convergence conference last Monday that the Project Spartan browser would be getting a new name, but those remarks were interpreted by some as an announcement that Redmond was “killing” IE in Windows 10.

The internet meme factory began celebrating IE’s demise with assorted GIFs and images mocking IE for being old, slow and un-cool.

Here’s what Capossela actually said [emphasis added]:

We're right now researching what the new brand for the — or the new name for our browser should be in Windows 10. We’ll continue to have Internet Explorer, but we also have a new browser called "Project Spartan," which is code-named "Project Spartan" and we have to name the thing.

While that statement isn’t very clear, we can probably assume that IE won’t be the default browser in Windows 10.

But Microsoft will still offer IE in Windows 10 to businesses and others who need it to support their websites and applications, as a Microsoft spokesperson told The Register:

We will continue to make Internet Explorer available with Windows 10 for enterprises and other customers who require legacy browser support.

The extended life-cycle of Windows XP is a perfect example of how Microsoft takes its time retiring old and unloved products.

Microsoft’s policy is to provide a minimum of five years of mainstream support and another five years of extended support for its Windows products.

For IE, laggards should know that beginning on 12 January 2016 Microsoft will only provide technical support and security updates for the most current version of IE available for a supported operating system.

For example, on Windows 8.1 and Windows 7, only IE 11 will be supported after January 2016.

With a minimum of 10 years of support, it seems premature to say Microsoft is killing IE, even if it abandons the brand in favor of a new name.

It will potentially take until 2023 before IE 11, released in October 2013, is finally dead.

Microsoft will nudge customers to move up to Windows 10 by offering a free upgrade from Windows 7 and above for the first 12 months after the new OS is released this summer.

Why so much hate for Internet Explorer?

The context of Capossela’s misunderstood remarks was his discussion of the strengths – and weaknesses – of the Microsoft brand, including market research around naming the new Project Spartan browser.

Having surveyed Google Chrome users in the UK, Microsoft found that a browser named Microsoft “A” would get an approval score of 182 out of a possible 200 points, while a browser named Internet Explorer “A” would only score a 113 out of 200.

Clearly, the Internet Explorer name is tarnished, probably beyond repair.

IE is much-maligned in the developer community because it doesn’t follow the same standards as other web browsers.

The emergence of rival browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Chrome has cut into IE’s market dominance, and those browsers get credit among readers we’ve polled at Naked Security for being more trustworthy than IE.

In the so-called browser wars, Microsoft is still winning, but only on desktops, where it has a 57% market share.

The extended life-cycle of Windows XP is a perfect example of how Microsoft takes its time retiring old and unloved products.

It’s not. It’s a perfect example of the fact that most customers aren’t happy with change, particularly when the change was from XP (which was solid after SP2) to Vista (which was a monumental cock-up) or 8 (which was worse).

One of the reasons why I got a Mac was because when “Windows 7” came out, I looked at it, and being the nerd that I am, ran a ver command. I found out that it was Windows VERSION 6.1 and decided against getting Vista with a point upgrade. Now Windows 8 is VERSION 6.2, and 8.1 is VERSION 6.3.
It is about time that Microsoft renamed the version of the kernel to ten. Perhaps it is not a measly point upgrade, with a new front end. Time will tell.
All I know is that I have had many fewer problems with the Mac, than I ever did with Windows. For home, Mac is the champ. Microsoft Windows only pays the bills for me now.

Which leads to me to their new “Spartan” web browser. Could it be that Internet Explorer has had a bad reputation, and is in need of a major overhaul? I think so. Could it be that without a name change IE would never live down its reputation? I think so. Could it be that the new web browser will be much better than alternatives? I don’t think so.

I hope this is the scream test every internal website developer needs to stop using IE-centric code as a crutch and use browser-agnostic standards. And for every company that’s failed to invest in their core website code to get with the program.

Glad it wasn’t just me who rolled my eyes at the Windows XP comment. I view the introduction of Win 10, hot on the heals of 8, to be exactly like the followup of 7 directly after Vista. In both cases, large numbers of people didn’t switch over to the new OS because Vista and 8 were steaming dungheaps. Windows 10 is the new 7.
I’ll be interested to see Spartan though (and I hope they keep the name, I think it sounds good)… I have primarily used Opera for years, which I consider miles better than both Chrome and Firefox, but if MS is finally getting into a frequent update cycle, it should help the quality of their browser.. hopefully.

Judging by the recent output from Redmond, we should all be seriously worried that MS want to offer a newly developed browser. It’s right to kill off IE that was flawed from the start. But modern software development is riddled with mistakes and omissions as they don’t do UAT any longer, they only check for basic coding errors. So what will emerge will quite likely not suit users and not work as users expect. It could well be riddled with holes and back doors that leave it unsafe, perhaps just as bad as IE still is.

I agree with JM that Vista was a disaster and W8 and 8.1 are not much better. MS are making the same mistake with W10 as a ‘one size fits all’ approach is bound to be a turn off for almost everyone. Mobile users won’t like the desktop-ish style while desktop/laptop users won’t like the mobile style – those horrid icons splashed all over the screen in W8 Metro.

8/8.1 BETTER than VISTA ROTFMLMAO – i should know I (anti-fanboing) seriously slagged off Vista reading some DRM lock down propaganda on its release(later to be shown false) in reality Vista is a vastly modernised/security evolved/safer OS than aged XP was by then.With the GUI/graphics MS may not reached the relative heights they did with XP but they did with 7 thus why 7 is termed Vista with an additional SP – its core/advances/security was that used mostly in 7, like XP was based on W2K’s advances in security/engineering. You can see the familiarity/relation/gui user function of these “twins” in/via explorer. IMO Vista was vastly maligned for no other reason than the all areas of expectation that XP created + was impracticable to live up to. That’s not to say Vista was without problems cf 7 eg being a resource HOG.
CONTRASTING completely 8 is FAR FAR worse as an aesthetically pleasing, practical, desktop efficient mouse/gui platform HOWEVER MS still made serious advances in its tech security/structure.

” MS are making the same mistake with W10 as a ‘one size fits all’ approach”

You also infer MS has no long term plan + make things up as they go along or continue in their current manner. Hasn’t the thought occurred to you that the understandable biz importance of their mobile OS to succeed? What better big universal platform (though now shrunk/shrinking) than Windows on PCs itself. Thus 8 was sacrificed for its desktop user appeal for promotion + given their past rising JAW dropping ability to resurrect windows after a dud version like a phoenix from the ashes TIME after TIME perhaps all along they planned to make 10 to draw back desktop users from a LONG chosen history with win ( assuming 8 has pissed them off for good) thus DELIBERATELY not making the same mistakes as 8.